Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Creative Writing Midterm Break Interp Midterm Break Interp “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney’s “Mid-Term Break” is an extremely tear-jerking poem. The story begins and ends in a very depressing manner, while in between we are treated to a very vivid and blunt view of life and how it can all come to an abrupt end. While “Mid-Term Break” does use death to grab at the reader’s heart strings, the story is most likely a description of life in Heaney’s native Northern Ireland, not Heaney’s life, but a very general view of life in Northern Ireland, how it can all come to a screeching halt at the hands of others and for no apparent reason. The warring in Northern Ireland has cost a lot of lives and due to the staggering amount of those who have passed for their cause, it is easy to see it in mere numbers and not recognize the level of loss. This serves as a sort of reminder that these are people, not statistics, and through its vivid details of the child’s death, the story gives us a clearer picture of the suffering suffered by families at the structure of the rules they are forced to live by as the struggle goes on around them. As the story opens, we are given the mood, almost entirely, in the second line. It is important to notice how Heaney uses assonance and alliteration here to emphasize the funeral sound of the bells and the feeling of time dragging by. “I sat all morning . . . counting bells knelling classes to a close. At two o’clock our neighbors drove me home,” (Heaney 1-3) You get the sense of time slowly dragging by as the narrator sits in the hospital, waiting and waiting and waiting. This is due to the beginning of the stanza talking about how the narrator “sat all morning”and then it is two o’ clock in line three to show that hours have passed as he waited. It could easily be interpreted that this represents the waiting that whichever faction the author is sympathetic to in the conflict of Northern Ireland, is now going through as its members die and suffer. The waiting symbolizes the torture that those, still alive, are dealing with as their loved ones die. The second stanza begins with the image of Heaney’s father “crying”. (Heaney 4) The father, “Big Jim Evans,”(Heaney 6) lends an image of powerful, strong man of few words, simply due to how he comments that the father “had always taken funerals in stride” (Heaney 5). This shows that Big Jim Evans is usually a source of strength to others when something such as this happens. The contrary picture of the father evokes powerful emotion in the reader. It could be interpreted that this is a representation of those leaders who lead the rebellion. Those who send others to the front, then when one of their own goes down to attack, pull back somewhat and deal with their loss, rather than continue to lend that same support to the cause. Heaney’s mother “coughing out angry tearless sighs,” (Heaney 13) speaks as a sort of anger in those around who feel this is more of a setback to the rebellion, rather than losses that will affect families. Lines 14-15 again shows Heaney using assonance, this time in his repetition of the short “a”. “At”, “ambulance”, “arrived”, “stanched”, “and”, and “bandaged” (Heaney 14-15) - this emphasizes the stopping short of blood and life. This “death”, is a very heart wrenching description of the prospect of their cause coming to an end with every wave of casualties, not so much about death of those serving, but death of the cause. In the sixth stanza, Heaney tells us, the reader, that he hadn’t seen his brother for six weeks, having been “away at school”(Heaney 18). This could represent a sort of drift into personal loss, perhaps a loved one lost in conflict, but most likely it is more of a vague insight to, perhaps, a specific excursion in which several people left to encounter the opposing force and those survivors are just now returning. Given the mood of the piece, the survivors are badly beaten and wounded, adding to the despair felt throughout the work. The words “paler now”(Heaney 18), hang at the end of the stanza, causing a sad pause before the sentence continues and describes how little changed in the appearance the boy is in death, the difference being his paler complexion and “poppy bruise”(Heaney 19). This is easily translated to flowing blood of the wounds of the soldiers against their pale, blood drained, skin. The term “boy , could almost be used to describe new recruits and their exuberance, but lack of experience. It could also be merely used in a pure military sense, as when referring to our soldiers in times of war. The term “boys” is almost always used to talk of our heroes fighting for our causes. This lends a closeness and supportive tone to back them in times of war. “The bumper knocked him clear,” (Heaney 21) tells us that the boy was hit by a bus or some sort of motor vehicle. Often, when describing a military onslaught, the opposing force is dramatized into a sort of machine. The enemy is being blamed for this loss, and there is a desire to make them seem cold, heartless, and calloused, like a machine. The “bumper” (Heaney 21) could easily represent the weapons of the opposing force, while the machine itself is a symbol of the enemy. The final line stands out on its own. “A four foot box, a foot for every year”(Heaney 22) brings about an absolute sense of remorse. Almost every word is emphasized so that the reader must take in the line’s message and the shock and deep grief that the family must have felt. There is an element of shock for the reader reading it for the first time also, when they discover who has died, and that he was a mere four years old. A description of an innocent, as children are generally portrayed as innocent and with a sense of blind faith. The death could either be that of a bystander who happened to be caught in crossfire or the infamous bombs that are used in the Northern Ireland conflict, but more than likely, its meaning to show that every casualty brings about a further setback to the conflict, and the belief is the true casualty. The death is what is in that box, and despite how long the conflict has raged, it is shown here as a child, to perhaps articulate that the belief of that faction is still in its early stages and that if more do not take up the cause, the belief will die along with those on the battlefield. To call “Mid-Term Break” a story of the death of a four year old is selling short the conflict presently going on in Heaney’s Northern Ireland. Though, he may not reside there now, its far reaching implications on those who once resided there are unimaginable. A very sad piece about a very controversial and heated conflict. Bibliography: Word Count: 1196
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